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GM's Journal - August 1895
Monday 5th August, 1895 Using the pillar of Atlantis as a beacon, the crew of the Nautilus manage to track down the fabled city itself. As they approach they discover a massive pyramid, with a large crystal window on the outside. It appears that there is a pocket of air inside, and an opening below that is large enough to accept the submersible. The Nautilus sails inside, and is assaulted by a group of huge creatures, that appear to have some kind of psychic ability to affect the minds of humans. Jones is the worst affected of the group. Defeating the creatures they land the Nautilus and move into the interior of the pyramid in search of Van Helsing. As they move through the Pyramid, exploring the abandoned rooms and 'interior streets' the following is discovered. *Sir Robert finds a room that contains a cauldron full of clay. The room is clearly abandoned and covered in dust, but the clay is somehow still wet and workable. Neither he, nor Belladonna can come up with any explanation as to why the clay remains wet. *A little later, Jones finds a tall, ornate mirror in a wrecked room. For a moment he is sure that he sees the reflection of a tall, old man in strange robes, and then he sees his own reflection. This is just the beginning of his curious involvement with the mirror, however, as his reflection then starts to move around 'within the mirror' independantly of how Jones is moving in the 'real world'. None of the Rippers can come up with any verifiable explanation for this curious occurence, and it is decided to carry the bulky mirror with them for invesitgation later. *Stefan rounds a corner and comes face to face with a group of indiiduals that are wearing the same style of clothing as the old man that Jones thought he saw in the mirror. They attack on sight and share many characteristics with Vampires, though Holy Water doesn't seem to effect them at all. *They also see, but manage to avoid a close encounter with, another one of the large creatures that attacked the Nautilus, this one moving around inside the pyramid. *Tim Simms and Arhibald Hibbert are left guarding the Nautilus, and the rest head into the Pyramid in search of Van Helsing. *After 5 hours of searching, they find the elder Van Helsing lying wounded, but alive, at the side of a large stone circle on the ground. There is a bloody straight razor lying nearby. The wounded man is surprised to see the Rippers, particlarly his son, but is also relieved to see them. He recounts a tale of the people of Atlantis, explaining that they were the first 'true' Vampires, born, not created, and that Dr. Jack is seeking to release them on the world. He then tells his own history. Van Helsing has such a strange past because there is no Van Helsing - he is, in fact, Edward Kelly - the man who taught Dr. Jack to combine Sorcery and Science. After realising his mistake, he changed his appearance and returned to become a student of Dr. Jack, hoping to help from within. When all of Dr. Jacks students went insane, and Dr. Jack himelf succumbed, he reformed the Rippers into a monster-hunting organisation in the hopes that he could fight against that which he had helped to create. All of this preamble is to explain why he has continued to utilise and experiment with Rippertech, as he knows that no normal human can face Werewolves and Vampires and hope to survive. He also explains that he has created, using the blood of an Atlantean Vampire, a serum that should be a complete cure for Ripping Psychosis. He attempted to administer it to Dr. Jack, but he was overpowered and Dr. Jack escaped, heading back to their 'Biosphere' a Biological Submersible, so that he can escape Atlantis. He charges the Rippers with chasing after Dr. Jack and administering the Serum, so that Dr. Jack might not return here to 'free' the Atlantean Vampires, granting even greater power to the Cabal. The younger Van Helsing will stay and look after his father, until the other Rippers return. *When they reach the place where they left the Nautilus docked they find Archibald Gutted and Tim with his throat slit. Bellaonna is rendered insensible by the sight of her fiancee slain, and the rest of the group are forced to watch, impotent, as the Nautilus sails out of the underwater harbour. Through the crystal window they see a large group of the creatures that attacked them before swarm the Nautilus and crush it in their tentacles. While Dr. Jack is dead, they have lost their one way out of the underwater Pyramid and so return to the Van Helsings. *Returning to the Van Helsings they find only the elder there, in worse shape than he was when they left him. He explains the history of his son ... Johann was never born, he was created, by Frankenstein, grown from scratch in a Ripper lab in Hell to act as a “spare” body for Dr. Jack. Johann and Dr. Jack have separate life forces, but they share a single soul. When the Nautilus imploded and Dr. Jack died, his soul was transferred fully into the “spare” body, and his twisted personality overwhelmed Johann. Seizing his discarded blade, he mortally wounded the unsuspecting Van Helsing, opend the Infernal Mirror, and stepped through. *Van Helsing's dying words urge the Rippers to stop whatever plot it is that Dr. Jack seeks to perpetrate. : “Johann has been possessed by Dr. Jack...He opened the mirror, and escaped. He entered a code that took him straight to Hell; I copied it down...He will recuperate there until he is able to return to Castle Dracula and complete his plan. You must stop him...you must not let him use this mirror... it must be destroyed, but it isn’t too late to save him...Please!...” *The Rippers examine the mirror, realising that some of the symbols on it match those that they saw in the chapel at Rosslyn. It is also apparent that if some of the stones with symbols on are destroyed, then the broken ring would be unusable. *Belladonna offers to stay behind and destroy the mirror once the others have gone through. There is much discussion about this. Sir Robert believes that by combining his Improved ammunition with Stefan's explosive rounds and experimental pistol they should be able to create a time-delayed explosive that would render the infernal mirror inoperable. Stefan refuses to give up his equipment, and Belladonna is adamant that she will remain behind, as she wishes to join Timothy Simms in death. Garvin says that he will remain behind with Belladonna, as there is litte left for him also (but secretly plans to push Belladonna through the circle. *The Circle is activated, using not the code for Hell, but the symbols from Rosslyn. Stefan is the first to go through, and once he has done so, Jones triumphantly holds up Stefan's experimental pistol and explosive ammuniton, which Sir Robert goes to work on, creating his explosive device. Belladonna still insists on staying behind, in case the explosive does not work, but in the end persuasive argument and a little strong-arming take her through the mirror, shortly before the explosive goes off. *The Rippers find themselves in a rubble strewn crypt, blocked in by a cave-in, and begin to dig their way out ...